Hello and welcome back to the Magic Super Cube!

As usual, we are going to be going through the history of Magic and choose cards from every set of Magic that was Standard legal or would have been Standard legal had the format existed and making an enormous Cube out of the choices.

Today we are going to be delving into Ice Age, and this was probably the hardest set to pick cards from. There are some absolutely iconic cards that come from the set, and there are also some not so great cards that fill in the blanks.

This was also a massive set of almost 400 cards, and there were choices for every color, some multicolor choices, artifact choices, and land choices that made the list of picks very tight.

While it was a difficult choice, I made a bunch of picks that I stand by and think would be good for the Cube to get.

White

White was difficult among the colors because out of the five colors, there were not as many great picks to choose from.

So for the noncreature white picks, I went with a card that I didn’t realize that I missed earlier, and while it was available in earlier sets and will be made available in future sets, but I think getting now would make picking unique white cards for the set easier, and a combat trick that will be helpful in the long run.

The creature pick for white was difficult because there weren’t many great picks in my opinion. The choice for white was made because, while highly costed, would be a great pick for a strategy in the future, especially when played with certain types of spells and effects.

My picks for white are Disenchant, Rally, and Seraph.

Blue

Blue was difficult because there are quite a few iconic spells that came from this set that made picking cards difficult.

The creature pick was tough, but there happened to be a creature that would be helpful for certain strategies in the future, so picking it now would definitely help serve the Cube in the long run.

The noncreature picks were incredibly difficult, especially since a staple card in older formats like Legacy and Vintage comes from this set. However, since that card is available in future sets, I decided to omit it for now in order to pick a card that adds some redundancy in the set and a card that brings in a mechanic introduced in the set into the fray.

My picks for blue are Hydroblast, Mystic Remora, and Soldevi Machinist.

Black

Black was difficult because there was a choice that I had to make here and hopefully I remember that it exists for a payoff way later in the future.

The creature choice in the set was interesting because it allows for a typal strategy in the future of a creature type that has some sparse showings in multiple sets, but will be helped by this choice.

The noncreature choices were both easy and difficult, with one being an obvious include that it was automatic. The other noncreature pick was difficult because it would have a payoff much later in building the Cube, but until then will serve to be and interesting deckbuilding choices.

My picks for black are Demonic Consultation, Necropotence, and Pestilence Rats.

Red

As with the other colors, red had a bunch of difficult choices.

The creature choice I made was very hard because there were a lot of options for a typal card, I decided to make a different pick to serve a play style that I think the Cube is lacking at the moment, but will help serve as a potential theme for the future.

The noncreature picks of red actually happened to accidentally share a theme between theme, which were that they were cards that hosed a particular color, which is helpful in making sure that some of that color’s strong early cards are tempered by these choices.

My picks for red are Balduvian Hydra, Curse of Marit Lage, and Pyroblast.

Green

Green was the easiest color to pick from the five colors, which was refreshing.

I went more creature heavy in green with two picks for creatures, one of which was again a little more redundancy for a particular playstyle and the other is such an iconic creature that didn’t have too many printings in Standard legal sets that picking now would be better than picking later.

The noncreature spell was also an easy pick because it would help not just green in the future, but any deck in the future especially as we get to land types mattering in the future.

My picks for green are Fyndhorn Elves, Lhurgoyf, and Nature’s Lore.

Multicolor

This set had options for some allied multicolor options, and while there were some three color cards, I went with the allied pairs instead.

There were a decent variety of cards that I went with, with one being a form of protection, another being some card selection, some damage to creatures, a bit of color hosing, and a tutor.

The reason why I didn’t go with creatures for multicolor were that the options weren’t that great, an unfortunate theme for Magic sets for a while.

My picks for multicolor are Chromatic Armor, Diabolic Vision, Fire Covenant, Monsoon, and Altar of Bone.

Artifacts

Artifacts actually proved to also be a hard choice for the Cube.

Looking at some of the artifacts I was surprised to see that there were some underwhelming artifacts to choose from and some really weird ones that would add some interesting aspects to the Cube.

Of the artifacts, one is a card that is iconic and provides an interesting effect, another plays around with the colors a bit, one helps a particular strategy for the future, one is some removal after a period of time, and a way to get information and draw a card.

My picks for artifacts are Naked Singularity, Jester’s Cap, Skull Catapult, Time Bomb, and Urza’s Bauble.

Lands

Out of all the choices, the lands were the easiest choice among all of them.

Luckily for me there was a land cycle introduced in Ice Age that I could use and provide some color fixing for the Cube at a decent rate. What was difficult for me was omitting a land card that would not be appearing in future sets.

While I thought about including the land, what prevented me from adding it to the Cube was that it would not lead to an overall fun game experience in the long run, which one of my main criteria for the Cube is to try and make it as fun as possible, which this land would not really do in the long run.

My picks for the lands are Adarkar Wastes, Underground River, Sulfurous Springs, Karplusan Forest, and Brushland.

In Conclusion

Ice Age was probably the hardest set to choose from, one because it had a massive pool of cards and two because some of the iconic choices for certain cards made things a little harder overall.

When we come back to the Magic Super Cube we will be looking at Homelands, a notorious set for being one of the lowest rated sets for Magic, and one that has a much lower power level in comparison to all other Magic sets.

As usual, here is the Moxfield link to keep up with all the cards in the Cube!

See you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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